Sex/Gender, Communication, and Social Systems: A Gendered Reinterpretation Based on Niklas Luhmann; [Sexo/gênero, comunicação e sistemas sociais: uma releitura generificada a partirde Niklas Luhmann]

Ramos E.R.A.; Theves J.P. · Revista Mad (2026) · DOI: 10.5354/0719-0527.2026.85233

Resumen

This article examines the analytical potential of the dialogue between Niklas Luhmann’s social sys-tems theory and gender studies, particularly through the contributions of Judith Butler, Gayle Rubin, and Teresade Lauretis. It proceeds from the assumption that this rapprochement makes it possible to challenge and expandcentral categories of Luhmannian theory, such as communication, autopoiesis, functional differentiation, and in-clusion/exclusion, from a gendered perspective. Methodologically, the study is theoretical-conceptual and is basedon the analytical reconstruction of these two fields. The argument maintains that the sex/gender system shouldnot be understood as an autonomous functional subsystem or as an autopoietic unity in a strong sense, but ratheras a transversal semantic-communicative order that orients forms of observation, classification, addressing, andrecognition of bodies, identities, and subjects. The findings indicate that technologies of gender may be read as de-vices for the stabilisation, circulation, and variation of gendered distinctions, while the rapprochement betweenexclusion and abjection makes it possible to analyse the communicative limits of social intelligibility. The articleconcludes that social systems theory does not provide a complete theory of gender, but it can contribute to under-standing gender as a relational, historical, and communicatively stabilised, contested, and transformable process.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa